EDFL clubs Aberfeldie, Pascoe Vale and Essendon Doutta Stars could face penalties over payment rule breaches

REIGNING premier Aberfeldie and fellow Essendon District Football League Premier Division clubs Pascoe Vale and Essendon Doutta Stars could face penalties after a review found they breached allowable player payments rules.

REIGNING premier Aberfeldie and fellow Essendon District Football League Premier Division clubs Pascoe Vale and Essendon Doutta Stars could face penalties after a review found they breached allowable player payments rules.

In a statement, the league confirmed the three clubs had made “incorrect interpretations of the rules and procedural mistakes”.

HASTINGS HIT WITH FINES OVER SALARY CAP

It has not been disclosed if the clubs were over the $250,000 salary cap for top-flight EDFL clubs — the highest limit of any Victorian competition — and any potential penalties will be decided at a later date.

An EDFL-appointed AFL Victoria integrity officer compiled reports on all clubs.

Aberfeldie players celebrate their EDFL grand final victory last year. The club is one of three that was found to have breached allowable player payments rules. Picture: Hamish Blair

“The reviews covered all aspects,” EDFL chief executive Craig Armstead told Leader.

“2017 was meant to be the educational year, so we asked the auditor to go through and check all the elements of it and that it complied with the procedures.

“The thing with all three of them, they were really co-operative and transparent throughout the process, so that was really encouraging and pleasing to us.

“They learnt, we learnt, which was the whole idea of being educational. There were parts where they just incorrectly interpreted the rules and there were a few procedural mistakes.”

The salary cap was implemented last season in community competitions across the state to complement the player points system under AFL Victoria’s Club Sustainability Program.

Education was the focus of the first year, but clubs can lose premiership points, have their player points cap reduced and be ineligible for finals for up to three years if found guilty of serious breaches.

The Essendon Doutta Stars could also face penalties over breaches. Picture: David Crosling

The program seeks to address the impact of player payments and the burden on club volunteers.

Clubs are required to disclose payments made to players by October 31 each year.

“The whole idea with a process like this is you’ve got to have some sort of checking mechanism and it’s great that AFL Victoria accredited these guys so that we can go to them and it’s someone independent to us that conducts the review and gives us some feedback on how they’ve gone,” Armstead said.

“We obviously shared that with the clubs, the clubs got their reports and we’re working through them with the clubs.

“Ultimately, we’ll wait till the end when we finalise a position on all three and then we’ll make a statement on the outcomes.”

Pascoe Vale is one of three clubs found to have made “incorrect interpretations of the rules and procedural mistakes”. Picture Andrew Tauber

The EDFL’s $250,000 salary cap is greater than neighbouring Western Region and Northern leagues, which have a payments limit of $225,000 in their top-flight competitions.

The Ballarat ($140,000) and Riddell District leagues ($110,000) — which border EDFL territory — have significantly lower caps.

The EDFL figures are equivalent to $13,888 per week across the 18-round season — an average of $631 per player.

Plans are afoot for all metropolitan leagues to have the same salary cap by 2020.